Deals from Derek

Editorial Comment: I was going through my drafts and found this inventory laying around unpublished (though I’m not sure why–perhaps I was looking for photos?)  Whatever the case, most of this has since sold thanks to posts like this, but I figured it would be worthwhile to post it for historical reference–plus I bothered to write it, so why not post it?

Back in February of this year I wound up buying “all of the 40k” models from a long-time friend of mine that was getting out of the hobby.  We both knew he had more at the house, but that was the bulk of what he had for sure, and I didn’t have the heart to buy everything.  After all, if he had no more models, what incentive did he have to come back and play with me one day?

Well, he broke down and wanted to sell the rest in an attempt to make room at his place.  This is something he’s been threatening to do for a few months, but last night he wound up showing up at my house and making good on that threat.  He wound up tallying it up and this is what he said he had:

Army	Description	QTY
BFG	BFG misc shuttles and mines	?? (bunch)
Eldar	Armorcast Eldar Tempest Grav Tank	3
Eldar	Armorcast Eldar Falcon	1
Eldar	Armorcast Eldar Phantom Titan	1
Eldar	Loose Falcon Tank Hulls	5
Eldar	Warp Spider	22
Eldar	Swooping Hawk	11
Eldar	Dire Avenger	17
Eldar	Striking Scorpion	7
Eldar	Dark Reaper	29
Eldar	Fire Dragon	17
Eldar	Howling Banshee	5
Eldar	Exarch – Warp Spider	5
Eldar	Exarch – Swooping Hawk	1
Eldar	Exarch – Dire Avenger	3
Eldar	Exarch – Striking Scorpion	4
Eldar	Exarch – Dark Reaper web of skulls	2
Eldar	Exarch – Dark Reaper	2
Eldar	Exarch – Fire Dragon	2
Eldar	Exarch – Banshee	2
Eldar	Guardian – Plastic	21
Eldar	Warlocks	5
Eldar	Wraithguard	21
Eldar	Wraithlord	4
Eldar	Eldar Vypers	10
Eldar	Eldar Jetbike	15
Eldar	Eldar Jetbike Shrieker	5
Eldar	Eldar Shining Spears	3
Eldar	Eldar Rangers	5
Eldar	Eldar Scouts	2
Eldar	Eldar Farseer	4
Eldar	Eldar metal guardians	13
Eldar	Eldar Storm Guardians	8
Eldar	Eldar Hvy Wpn Platform misc	3
Eldar	Maugen Ra	2
Eldar	Fuegan	1
Eldar	Kharandros	1
Eldar	Jhain Zor	1
Eldar	Harlequins – misc	30
Eldar	misc Eldar hvy wpn platforms and crews	5
Eldar	Eldar Warwalker	1
Eldar	Asurman	1
Eldar	Baharoth	1
Grey Knight	Grey Knight Terminator	3
Grey Knight	Grey Knight Terminator Captain	1
Grey Knight	Engiseer	2
Grey Knight	Grey Knight SM Psycannon	1
Grey Knight	Grey Knight SM	16
Grey Knight	Grey Knight SM Incinerator	2
Imperial Guard	Armorcast Baneblade	1
Imperial Guard	Armorcast Reaver Titan	1
Imperial Guard	Armorcast Random Weapons	4
Imperial Guard	Stormtrooper	15
Imperial Guard	Stormtrooper plasma gun	3
Imperial Guard	Stormtrooper meltagun	3
Imperial Guard	Stormtrooper flamer	1
Imperial Guard	Inq Scriber assistant	1
Imperial Guard	Servitor	2
Imperial Guard	Priest with 2h Chainsaw	1
Imperial Guard	Stormtrooper Lieutenant	1
Imperial Guard	Psyker	3
Imperial Guard	Cadian AC Weapon Team	3
Imperial Guard	Cadian mortar team	3
Imperial Guard	Cadian Missile Launcher team	2
Imperial Guard	Cadian Hvy Bolter Team	1
Imperial Guard	Cadian Lascannon team	4
Imperial Guard	Stormtrooper painted metal	7
Imperial Guard	Stormtrooper painted metal w meltagun	2
Imperial Guard	Stormtrooper painted metal sgt	1
Imperial Guard	IG w Lasgun	76
Imperial Guard	IG Lt (pudgy)	3
Imperial Guard	IG Sgt	7
Imperial Guard	IG Comm Trooper	3
Imperial Guard	IG w meltagun	3
Imperial Guard	IG grenade launcher	1
Imperial Guard	IG w Plasmagun	3
Imperial Guard	IG w Missile Launcher	1
Imperial Guard	IG w Flamer	7
Imperial Guard	IG Sentinel (basic)	6
Space Marine	Rhino 2nd edition loose	2
Space Marine	SM Missile Launcher	1
Space Marine	Dark Angel dreadnought w power fist and plasma gun	1
Space Marine	SM w meltagun	1
Space Marine	SM w plasmagun	1
Space Marine	old plastic terminators	4
Space Marine	old SM heresy armors various marks	6
Space Marine	Land Raider	1
Space Marine	Rhino	1
Space Marine	Predator	1
Space Marine	Misc SM Terminators	12
Space Marine	Misc SM	68
Space Marine	SM Scout shotgun	5
Space Marine	SM scout sniper rifle	5
Tyranid	Old carnifex	1
		605

Making deals with him is great because there is 100% trust there.  I had no need to go through what he brought over in boxes because I’d seen most of it over the years, and have made enough deals with him to know that he’s trustworthy.  I had a general idea of what was there (I saw a couple of armorcast titans, I know he had Monty’s old Grey Knight army, and my old metal cadians.  I know he had a big box of metal/plastic eldar that was loose and another similar box of marines.

So armed with a little awareness and his inventory, we settled on a price.

It should be noticed that he has a really unique way of doing things.  During the inventory process, he glossed over a bunch of things: as an example, he showed me a bag of eldar models, but he only counted them as two farseers (which were contained in there), but he didn’t coutn everything else in that bag.  I guess the reason was some combination of:

• He didn’t know what the models were called
• He wasn’t sure if they were complete
• He didn’t want to go through the effort

After taking the time to do up a spreadsheet with model counts (in some freeware Mac based spreadsheet program that seems to really suck–more on that in a minute), he then did some crazy internal math to come up with an arbitrary number.  He spouted off some logic like:

• 50% off for the armorcast stuff
• $1 each for basic models
• $2 each for wraithlord
• $2 each for jetbikes
• $4 each for shining spears

And that list went on… He had this grand numbering scheme worked out, except that it was in his head and he didn’t use the spreadsheet to track it.  I asked him to do so while I was cleaning up the garage, and he told me it came out higher than the estimate–then 20 minutes later, it came out lower than the estimate.  I’m guessing spreadsheets aren’t his strong point.

This is especially true because his spreadsheet tallyed up to 319 models, but taking that same list and pasting it into Excel, I’m now coming up with almost twice that: 605 models.

So normally I buy armies for about 10-20% retail, thinking that should be able to resell them for 40-50%, and make a nice little profit.  The thing is, this time we didn’t have a retail number to go on, just a raw model count.  I figured the armorcast is the bulk of where the profit is to be made (but maybe if the Eldar stuff is in good condition, there’s some real profit there as well).  Anywho, his first asking price was $718.  I thought that was potentially possible, but a sticking point was that much of the stuff he had loose at $1 each left no profit in those models.  Based upon previous sales, old plastic/metal terminators and the like wind up selling for $1 each, so after fees, I’d actually be taking a hit on them.

My counter was to say that I know that it’s a good deal for me to buy at $.50 base for each model, effectively taking $150ish off the top.  I’d do $550 in a heartbeat, but I wasn’t sure if I would do $700.  Note: I didn’t say I wouldn’t do $700, I just wasn’t sure if I would go that high.  He suggested we meet in the middle at $600, which made me wonder if I’m sticking it to him on the deal.  This was all a completely open transaction.  I new that I’d do $600, but I wondered if I shouldn’t be paying more.

In the meantime, our conversation rambled onto a host of different subjects and would periodically drift back on topic.  I remember distinctly that as we drifted back on topic, he haggled himself down to $575–all while I’m trying to haggle myself up from $600.  It’s definitely a unique experience.

He gave me his perspective which was to say that this is obviously far less than he originally paid for it, but so much of it he never played with at all.  It’s now just taking up space in his house, so getting it out of there was almost more valuable than the money he’d get for it.  He just wanted to be rid of it.  He also reminded me that he’s fine with me making money on it.  He said that he “didn’t care if I made $1000 or $2000 on it” and that he’s happy to get it out of his place.  That helped ease my worries, and we just agreed on $600.

So now this stuff is sitting in my garage, awaiting someone to come whisk it all away.  Will that be you?!

Editorial Comment: I was going through my drafts and found this inventory laying around unpublished (though I’m not sure why–perhaps I was looking for photos?)  Whatever the case, most of this has since sold thanks to posts like this, but I figured it would be worthwhile to post it for historical reference–plus I bothered to write it, so why not post it? The stuff marked in red is sold, but the rest should still be available–for the most part.

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